Album: Twilight In Versailles - Capsule

Band: Twilight In Versailles
Album: Capsule
Label: Self Released
Year: 2013

Tracklist
01. Winter's Passed
02. Dragonfly
03. Sky Train
04. White Wall
05. National
06. Paper Nights
07. EMD
08. Azul
09. Gyroscope
10. Canvas
Streaming

Twilight In Versailles is a collaborative group led by Ryan Moser. The album credits Guido Ghedin on a handful of drum tracks, as well as Jason Downer. Moser, however, handles a majority of the workload on Capsule. The album is just under an hour of tepid yet capacious post-rock in the vein of Riceboy Sleeps and This Will Destroy You’s Tunnel Blanket.

The album opens with ‘Winter’s Passed,’ which begins with reverberating, layered keyboard. It gently leads the listener into outer space with heavy, distorted drums and echoing guitars. The whole song sounds like a farewell to earth, leading to an interstellar day trip throughout the galaxy. As evidenced on ‘Winter’s Passed’ and the rest of the album, Moser is not afraid to let passages and themes draw out for as long as they need to. ‘Winter’s Passed’ is nearly nine minutes long and despite its repetitive nature, it never really seems to let up. It is an ideal opening track for the album that follows.

The next track, ‘Dragonfly,’ is much shorter than ‘Winter’s Passed,’ but it further evidences Moser’s willingness to allow instrumental themes to freely dictate the length of his songs. ‘Dragonfly’ is a track built on a bass guitar progression that leads into plucked guitar. The following tracks build on this motif, allowing a particular instrument to steer each song in a unique direction.Capsule patiently advances through ten songs with their own individual motifs, yet there are times when the album seems to meander without a unified direction.

The second to last track, ‘Gyroscope,’ comes close to bringing together everything that has occurred on Capsule up to that point. It wealthily combines the album’s numerous themes into a cogent farewell. The last track, ‘Canvas,’ reaches for the same heights as ‘Winter’s Passed,’ but Moser seems to lose control of the drums as they fracture off into space.

The whole album has a sense of deeply felt melancholy running throughout it, yet there is a sense of detachment as well. It is this dichotomy that, amongst other things, makes Capsule the successful debut it is. If humans had the capacity and means to visit other galaxies or solar systems, Capsule would likely be the soundtrack to these journeys. The album bodes very well for Twilight In Versailles’ future.

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